President Obama is expected to include a proposed $10 "fee" on every barrel of oil in his final budget. Obama suggests the "fee" (read: tax) will be paid for by evil oil companies (aren't they just the worst?), but in reality, we all know the price will be passed along to consumers.
We just got low gas prices back, and this is what we get from the administration?
This is how big government operates. People are finally getting a break in their pocketbooks, so the government looks for a way to stick it to them. Obama knows that people did pay the higher price for gas, so why not go back to that again and make government the beneficiary?
Obama says the new revenue would go toward reducing carbon emissions. We've already seen this play. Obama's stimulus granted millions upon millions of dollars to politically connected green energy companies that either went bankrupt or faltered. Solyndra may be the most famous, but it's not the only one — there was also Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, Beacon Power, Ener1, Abound Solar, and the list goes on.
The administration said the fee would be "gradually phased in over five years," but there is so far no information to suggest it would ever be phased out, even if the price of oil goes up. As we know from experience, taxes almost never go away.
This is nothing less than a tax on middle- and low-income families, who pay a disproportionate share of their income on energy. Obama promised in 2008 that he would not raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year. He may call this a "fee" and claim the oil companies would pay it, but the truth is it is a tax on those very families.
It's also nothing more than lame-duck politics. Obama knows this has no chance of passing a Republican-controlled Congress, and that even some Democrats won't vote for it. Yet Obama will make speeches and send out tweets claiming Republicans are in the pocket of Big Oil for not passing his "common sense" proposal.
If Republicans are smart, they'll point out that this is a tax on everyone who owns a car, or who pays to heat their home. They'll point out that the government has an abysmal track record with investing in green initiatives. They'll point out that the amount of carbon emissions allegedly reduced by these proposals won't make a dent in global emissions and won't reduce global warming one iota, but will hurt American families.
Maybe Speaker Ryan will even put this proposal on the floor and challenge Democrats to vote for it.
But that's if Republicans are smart and capitalize on this moment.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
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